Initially ignored some chow mein he prepared for my return? (4,1,4,4)

'initially ignored some chow mein' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'he prepared for my return?' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'he' could be 'nico' and 'nico' is found in the answer.
'return?' could be 'home' (homing is a kind of returning) and 'home' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?